🚀 go-pugleaf

RetroBBS NetNews Server

Inspired by RockSolid Light RIP Retro Guy

Article View: comp.lang.java
Article #267

Why C and C++ became widely used

#267
From: David Christie
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 22:18
34 lines
2059 bytes
Alex Katz wrote:
> 
> I think any advantages of Java over C++, real or imagined, do not necessarily
> mean that it will begin to displace C++, unless those advantages address
> directly the reasons that C and C++, unlike the vast preponderance of newly
> developed languages, became widely used. And I do not see this thread addressing
> those reasons.
> 
> Alex

In priority order:

1.	Portability.  (Standard language definition.)
2.	Portability.  (Wide availability on all platforms, early.)
3.	Portability.  (Just high level enough that you can write programs that
	               run on different machine architectures without sacrificing
	               performance; as low-level a portable language as possible.)

All other reasons pale by comparison.

For Java, this is still number 1, 2, and 3, but there may be others:

4.	Self-delivering over the web.
5.	Anti-virus security.

Note that for Java, "portability" means something more than it did for C and C++.  
In the context of the web, "portability" means running on any web client, not just 
on any operating system or hardware platform.  C and C++ are no longer portable 
enough, as well as not satisfying (4) and (5).

-- 
David Christie		Netscape Communications Corporation
dc@netscape.com		501 East Middlefield Road
415-937-4407		Mountain View, CA  94043
Technical Details
Message-ID: <3172CB1E.2642@netscape.com>
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!tera.mcom.com!usenet
References: <31682FFE.2781E494@bbn.com> <DpJyGG.FKK@hkuxb.hku.hk> <denatale-1004960822260001@grail1506.nando.net> <dbell-1104960125190001@wholder2.cts.com> <316E856F.47DB@viewsoft.com>

Show Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!tera.mcom.com!usenet
From: David Christie <dc@netscape.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Why C and C++ became widely used
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 15:18:06 -0700
Organization: Netscape Communications, Inc.
Message-ID: <3172CB1E.2642@netscape.com>
References: <31682FFE.2781E494@bbn.com> <DpJyGG.FKK@hkuxb.hku.hk> <denatale-1004960822260001@grail1506.nando.net> <dbell-1104960125190001@wholder2.cts.com> <316E856F.47DB@viewsoft.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: h198-93-94-207.mcom.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.01Gold (Win95; I)
To: Alex Katz <alexk@viewsoft.com>